This morning while I was driving I heard the NPR segment called “This I Believe”. Those of you who read my blog regularly know how intrigued I am by people’s belief systems and what drives them. This I Believe is a segment that I love to listen to for that very reason.

This morning there was an essay featured by Matt Harding of Seattle, WA. Matt has been known in the viral video world for his crazy dancing videos from all across the world.

In his essay, he points out how freeing dance can be and also the realization that this process has brought him to. We are no longer people of a small tribe of 10-15 people, judging the other tribes around us, but instead, technology has connected us to eachother in unexpected ways.

This experience really resounded with me, and made me realize that the world really is transitioning to an Age of Interconnectivity.

CLICK HERE to read Matt’s essay and then drop me a note to let me know what you thought about it.

And this is his video:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

This guy continues to whack at my head. I love that I have stumbled upon him through my friend Paul at the same moment that I am considering the concept of time so carefully.

Greg Boyd, in his recent post addresses the false integration between Christo-centric theology and Hellenistic philosophy. This is a point that my friend Randy and I have discussed on many occasions. If you have a few minutes, read Greg’s post and think about it in relation to my ideas on time. This stuff is really beginning to come together for me.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POST

OK, I know it seems absurd that I am posting on “LOST”, but I find several themes running through the show as relevant to the issues I address here. Ignore for just a second that according to my view of time the island cannot even exist, but alas I digress.

This week’s episode has a injured John Locke visiting those who have made it off the island. Unexpectedly, one of those he visits is Walt. Walt made it off before anyone else, and so it was surprising that John goes to visit him. The really interesting part of the encounter though, and the point of this post, is Walt’s reaction to seeing John Locke. He is not surprised in the least, in fact John asks him why he is not surprised, and he states that he was expecting he might show up because of a dream he had.

Here is the cool thing. Walt had come to EXPECT the supernatural. As a result, he did not have to conjure up enough faith to believe that John was really in front of him (contrast Hurley’s reaction – assuming that John is a delusion).

Expect the unexpected…if you begin to encounter the supernatural on a regular basis, you will begin to increase in faith in a way in which you will not be surprised by it.

Theology of Faith Via LOST.

Most of my friends who are well versed in theology would argue that God and the rest of the “spirit” realm stand outside of our history and are able somehow to move through it. While this is often believed about God, it is far less often discussed about angels and demons. However, when it comes down to it, most agree that the issue of the spirits being outside of our time space realm is why we cannot see them every day.

However, I would like to suggest that these two realities are intertwined in time. Take as an example, Daniel’s encounter with a spirit messenger in Daniel chapter 10. The angel comes to give Daniel a message but he says that he has been delayed. Take a look at what he says (NLT for ease of reading here)

I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. -Daniel 10:12-13

So the simple question I have is this. If the spirit realm is movable in relation to this physical realm in which we live, then why on earth would the angel have been DELAYED from seeing Daniel in the physical realm by an event that takes place in the spirit realm? I think the reasonable answer is that they are not separate. Thoughts?

Assume our understanding of Time posted earlier. If this is the case there comes an interesting relationship between people on this planet from a theological point of view. If we are all in the present, including God, then how and why do we interact with each other the way that we do?

Suppose that God has a “plan” for your life. I actually think this is true. However, this plan is impacted by our own process of living. We may choose not to follow God and His “perfect plan” for our lives. In this case, consider that there is a “re-calculation” of the perfect plan for us from that point of decision forward. God does not “make” most things in our life happen in the direct way that we think of in Calvinistic theology, rather since Pentecost, mankind has been moved to BE the body of Christ in the world, and as a result has the responsibility to BE His actions in the world today. So imagine a group of believers who all have the Spirit of God living in them, being impressed to do things for God. Many of them will ignore these impressions, thus not “following God’s plan” for their lives. God’s “Big Picture Plan” is not thwarted though, because He will continue to impress upon believers until one chooses to answer YES. This can be applied to both big plan for the universe or little plan for individuals. When I make bad decisions, God can impress upon others to engage me and my life to bring about change. If they say no, the next “perfect person” will come along to say Yes.

In this way, we look back in our lives and say “man God must have been at work all along in these events” no matter how crappy or even evil those events were. Can I just tell you that this is not the truth. God does not cause evil, individuals cause evil. However, if God is constantly trying to bring about good from the decisions you make, no matter how terrible, then when looking in retrospect, they will look like they all fit together.

OK, so I am working on a concept of time that I think makes a lot of sense. In some ways it is very much like an existentialist position but I think as you hear me out it will be more obvious where I am coming from.

We assume that time is a linear reality and that there is both a future and a past. In this reality if we assume that Einstein is correct in his theory of relativity time is movable, changeable and specific to the context of the entity experiencing it. However, while Energy, Mass and the Speed of Light have a specific relationship to each other, we have not conclusively determined that this is the definition of time. In a relativistic world, we must assume that at least theoretically, there are aspects of time that suggest you “could” go back in time, or in some sense go forward into the future. (I will leave out the difficulty for now that the energy exerted on an entity would be nearly infinitely large prior to reaching the speed of light necessary to experience this variance in time.) Thus, if God does exist, He would exist “outside” of time…having created all physicality that can experience time, He would necessarily have to be outside of that realm of creation. Many have argued that this means God would be able at any moment to experience any given second of time. Thus, being outside of time, He could freely move through it. If this is the case, time in the universal sense would be relative to the context in which it is experienced. That is assuming of course that we believe that Einstein is correct in his assessment of the definition of time.

I propose that there is perhaps another way of looking at time; and just being an artist I will have to defer to my friends and others who are more well versed in the theory of relativity and physics of time to prove that I am an idiot, but I think there may be something to this position I have been considering.

What if time is ONLY the present. It is indeed moving along, perhaps even in a linear manner, but that there is no way whatsoever that the past can be reached again. The only moment that exists is present. For those of you reading this that are Christians, yes…I mean for God as well. (Hear screams of blasphemy in the background) In this sense, God IS present in the same way we are present. He does not simultaneously experience time in the future and the past, because it no longer IS in those realms. The only way in which the past exists is in the “residue” of its former present. We know through texts, art, architecture, music and even our own memories and inherited pasts from friends and family that there was a past present, but in no way can it be re-visited in any way.

So my skeptics are now saying, well that does not jive with Einstein in any way. That is correct it does not. However, imagine for just a second that Einstein has not described time by definition but the effects of time on individual bodies of mass in relationship to their place in the universe. In other words, “time” in its truest sense does still progress evenly, however the impact of its passing may differ based on the energy exerted upon a body and its own mass. (and even the impact of gravity on that entity.

In this, we DO see that the way in which we observe reality is “distorting” our concept of the truth in that reality. After all, we can never truly REACH the speed of light, if Einstein is correct. That seems a problem to me in the moveability of time. It expresses the truth of the observation, but ultimately, does not define our understanding of time.

Thoughts? Tell me I’m a fool, I can take it. Thats what the web is for isn’t it?

I will refine and expand as I work out this idea, and get correction. And I will expand it into the impact on theology in a follow up post.

I have spent a lot of time paying attention to Hebrew practice over the years. One of the practices I am particularly fond of is the reading of a portion of scripture each Sabbath following an outline that leads through the Jewish Calendar. This is the Second Sabbath of the calendar (The first portion is Bereshith – or in the beginning). This week picks up with Noach or Noah. This portion covers Genesis 6:9 – Genesis 11:32 (Noah to the tower of Babel). Also there si a reading known as Haftarah (or after Torah) that is typically from the historical books or from the prophets. This weeks portion is Isaiah 54:1 – Isaiah 55:5. Recently I have begun to notice that some followers of Jesus have coupled New Testament scriptures with the portion. This week is Matthew 24:36-44. It is interesting to read all of these together. Let me know what you think.

In Nashville for a couple of days for Human Again at Mosaic in Nashville:

CLICK HERE TO SEE

RELEVANT MAG ARTICLE

Here is my deal with this….If we leave it at the Church following and understanding culture instead of the church CREATING culture we will always be behind the curve. Post freakin Modernism is more than 20 years old now. There is a new age of interconnectivity which reaches beyond the paradigm of reactionary relativism. There is a new understanding of the subjective that is in relationship to the mass of other subjectives around you. Notice this is NOT the objective…NONE of these are necessarily true or objective, but rather a collection of the subjective.

Many folks will mistake this for “collective” truth, or the objective, but it is not. It is more like the Borg.

Hope this rant made a little sense.

Aly’s Dad is a Reformed Presbyterian Pastor, (White Lake Church) and they only sing psalms in worship. As a result, we pay attention to psalms used in worship a lot. One of Alysen’s friends came across this group that sing psalms, and I find them interesting. Take a listen by clicking on their link and then selecting “Listen” from the top right of their menu: Sons of Korah